Ayatollah Bahjat and the currents of political life during the Occultation

Abdol-Vahhab Forati

Academy of Islamic Thought and Culture

Abstract:

The grand Ayatollah Bahjat, unlike his traditional contemporaries in Qom seminary schools, viewed politics from an affirmative standpoint and had significant ideas in this regard. Entering into Najaf seminary schools during the second constitutional movement, he closely knew the constitutional movement leaders there and recounted important memoirs and statements from them which are have much historical value today. After returning to Iran, he also witnessed years of transfer of power in the Islamic Republic of Iran and closely experienced political events and problems. However, without direct interference in politics, he supported the totality of the Islamic revolution as a trustworthy observer and benevolently admonished authorities in different ways so that the system remains in the line of Islam.

The historical development of the concept of justice

Hamid Haji Heidar

British Studies, Tehran University

Abstract:

The present paper is an overview of the historical development of the concept of justice in human thought, disregarding the Islamic contributions. Starting with the viewpoints of ancient philosophers about justice, the paper then introduces the innovations of Christianity in this respect. Afterwards, the innovations of the intellectuals in the age of modernity concerning the conceptual development of justice are dealt with. Finally, the paper studies the innovations of two contemporary philosophers. The ultimate goal of the paper is to falsify the fallacy that “justice is a purely rational concept and prior to religious precepts.” If it is true that pure reason has nothing clear and unquestionable to say about justice and rationalists throughout the history had different, and sometimes contradictory, understandings of justice, the followers of the holly Qur’an and hadiths have to introduce a particular conceptualization of justice according to Islamic sources and place it on the pick of social values, putting away Platonic, Ciceronian, Rawlsian, and Nozickian concepts of justice.

Keywords: justice, freedom, civil rights, equality, private ownership

The instability and lack of the domination of philosophical thought in the contemporary Iran

Morteza Yousefi-rad

Academy of Islamic Sciences and Culture

Abstract:

Political philosophy is defined as any rational contemplation over the nature of life and political order, determining its direction and goal, and explaining the principles for the organization of society and the government and their realization. Contemporary Iran has been suffering from a lack of the domination of a philosophical thought over the basics, components, and foundations of political life, a factor which led the Iranian political society toward deep intellectual perturbations and even serious crises. What are the roots of such perturbations in the contemporary Iran? The paper claims that these intellectual and scientific perturbations in political life in the contemporary Iran arise out of the inability of parts of our philosophical and political tradition to answer the basic questions posed by the political society and its inefficiency to regulate and orientate the political life in this period. After elaborating the indices of instability in political life in contemporary Iran, the paper studies the various aspects of the deficiencies of the tradition of political philosophy in political life in this period.

Keywords: philosophical thought, political philosophy, political life, the tradition of political philosophy

Perception and validity in security theories

Ardeshir Noorian

Tehran University

Abstract:

Security theoreticians are preoccupied with questions about the nature of security and factors which make phenomena to be considered as security issues. To explain the nature of security and factors influential on it, different approaches have been proposed. One is the psychological approach which, emphasizing on the mental character of security and concentrating on the processes of perception in human mind, tries to explain human security behaviors. The endeavors of the proponents of this approach resulted in some theories of security. In this comparative study, using some of these theories, I will try to show how the mental character of security and the processes of human perception can explain security behaviors and the related decision-makings.

Marja’iyya and politics in Iraq: With an emphasis on Ayatollah Sistani’s thoughts

Farajollah Ghasemi

Baqir al-Olum University

Abstract:

The present paper is a study of the role of Marja’iyya in political developments in today’s Iraq and its interaction with the socio-political structures in the country. The writer considers Marja’iyya as an influential factor and a dynamic actor in history of Iraq’s political life and studies the phenomenon based on structure-agency framework. In addition, using critical realism to analyze Iraq’s political development and the relationship among the agent, Marjas, and Iraq’s internal and foreign relationships gives us a dynamic understanding and does not allow us to prioritize one of the two factors of structure or agency over the other in this dialectical relationship. The collapse of the Ba’ath regime in 2003 provided the opportunity for the Shiites to take over power due to their population majority, despite their deprivation from participation during the Ba’ath party’s ruling. As a result of the Shiites’ taking over political power, Marjas such as Ayatollah Sistani gained more power.

Keywords: Marja’iyya, contemporary Iraq, structure, agency.

Depicting the cycle of justice in Shahnameh

Tahereh Azizi

MA in Political Science

Abstract:

Iranian literature, whether poetry or fiction, is an important component of our history, culture, and thought. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, an Iranian national epic, depicts the picture of an ideal king in the political thought of the ancient Iran. An important feature of this ideal king is justice which can be realized in an ideal political system. Having a look at the cycle of justice, rooted in the Iranian tradition, one can find relationships among the features of this cycle in Shahnameh study some aspects and the ancient Iranian political thought as depicted in Shahnameh.

Achievements of three decades of endeavor

Mohsen Moradian

Higher University of National Defense

Abstract:

This report is a study of 30 years of the activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It presents a perspective of the post-revolution developments and comparing the existing situation with that of the pre-revolution era. Since human and economic factors have a privileged status in this study, human development indices and important economic indices, such as the gross domestic product and inflation, and the military power of the country have been particularly considered. Finally, this report tries to study the factors influential on people’s evaluation of the efficiency of the system and explain the reason behind these evaluations.